Self-deception Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABAC DEDF GHGH IAJA GKGL GMGM NONOSay what blinds us that we claim the glory | A |
Of possessing powers not our share | B |
Since man woke on earth he knows his story | A |
But before we woke on earth we were | C |
- | |
Long long since undower'd yet our spirit | D |
Roam'd ere birth the treasuries of God | E |
Saw the gifts the powers it might inherit | D |
Ask'd an outfit for its earthly road | F |
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Then as now this tremulous eager Being | G |
Strain'd and long'd and grasp'd each gift it saw | H |
Then as now a Power beyond our seeing | G |
Stav'd us back and gave our choice the law | H |
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Ah whose hand that day through heaven guided | I |
Man's blank spirit since it was not we | A |
Ah who sway'd our choice and who decided | J |
What our gifts and what our wants should be | A |
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For alas he left us each retaining | G |
Shreds of gifts which he refus'd in full | K |
Still these waste us with their hopeless straining | G |
Still the attempt to use them proves them null | L |
- | |
And on earth we wander groping reeling | G |
Powers stir in us stir and disappear | M |
Ah and he who placed our master feeling | G |
Fail'd to place our master feeling clear | M |
- | |
We but dream we have our wish'd for powers | N |
Ends we seek we never shall attain | O |
Ah some power exists there which is ours | N |
Some end is there we indeed may gain | O |
Matthew Arnold
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Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
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